Metadata and Master Data Management are crucial but also often underestimated aspects of a Performance Management strategy. Even if the data warehouse contains high quality transactional data, its practical value will be extremely limited if there is no well documented and uniform definition of the dimensional data available.

Metadata management can take many forms. Ideally, your metadata architecture contains both functional (e.g. business terminology & definitions) and technical (e.g. tables & columns, ETL transformations, …) metadata that is interlinked. The functional metadata is made available to end users, who can use this information to take correct decisions based on the information in the data warehouse; the technical metadata is available to the people developing and maintaining the Business Intelligence and Performance Management environments, so they can make sure that all technical definitions are always in sync.

element61 can help you in defining the optimal Metadata architecture for your Performance Management deployment. This may involve selecting, configuring and deploying one of the leading metadata offerings such as IBM Metadata Server & Business Glossary (part of IBM's Information Server platform), SAP Business Objects Metadata Management, Oracle Master Data Management or Sybase Powerdesigner. In some cases, the out-of-the-box functionality of these suites does not meet the specific metadata needs; element61 has also significant experience in building bespoke metadata architectures tailored to our customer's needs.

Master Data management is closely related to Metadata management and any initiative in this area should therefore happen in tight coordination. A data warehouse typically pulls together information from different data sources and has to frequently deal with master data management problems, in consolidating reference data. Master Data management software is designed specifically to deal with these issues and it is very important that its position in the overall Performance Management architecture is selected carefully. In some cases, the data warehouse is the ideal location to deal with master data issues; in other cases, it may be preferable to consolidate the reference data within the transactional systems.

element61 can help you decide which architecture best suits your specific needs and which of the leading software solutions integrate best with both your operational and decisional environments. Again leading master data management solutions like IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management Server, SAP Netweaver Master Data Management or Oracle Master Data Management might be selected and implemented to achieve these goals.